Silverblade - sure, people are complex - so do we give up on trying to understand this complexity? What's your evidence that psychology attracts those with serious mental disturbance? Personality differences in choice of career was something I researched for years and used in developing career counselling techniques and I'm not aware of any evidence for this.
Esther - all the journals I edited, reviewed for and published in required a critical examination of tools and methods. It's a shame so little good quality research filters down to the general public.
Floyd - the field of psychology covers a huge area of human experience and activity (eg child development, cognition and perception, well-being at work, forensic issues and mental health generally.) ADHD is a minute area! Most research on depression is carried out by biological scientists, not psychologists. Yes, doctors do over-prescribe anti-depressants, but this isn't psychologists' fault. They are more likely to use non-drug treatments.
Dolphin - I'm sure space science is more rigorous in terms of adhering to the scientific method than social sciences are. But there are lots of reasons for this, and some argue than interpretivist methods are more appropriate in studying people. These have their own rigour.
Hi Jenny
Any branch of medicine (as shrinks claim their chosen subject is) that can produce a statement that they present to a government funded research machine (the MRC) that provides themselves (the shrinks) and insurance companies with more money at the expense of patients is to me, nothing more than a scam - Psychology/psychiatry is guess work - it belongs in the dark ages or in the distant future where science has understood the workings of the mind. Evidence for psychology/psychiatry being at that point now is plainly lacking - please see the treatment of ME patients for the last 20-30 years for proof.
What is more worrying is the manipulation of subjective opinion that those involved in the field rely on. At the heart of any inhuman treatment carried out in the last hundred years including torture, warfare, government spin, etc you will find a psychiatrist. I remember watching the TV news reporting the Japan earthquake where the BBC had a shrink in the studio - he was positively foaming at the mouth and
smiling as he let slip that 'it' (the aftermath of suffering that would entail) would be an ideal opportunity to study behaviour.
I feel sorry for any student that has wasted an opportunity for education by following this subject - it is a religeon, it is a tool of manipulation, it is not science. For years shrinks have been desparate to stand within medical science - for years they have shown themselves not to be worthy of such respect.
........ The statement to the MRC regarding treatment of ME patients............
"The first duty of the doctor is to support as much function as possible and
avoid the legitimisation of symptoms and reinforcement of disability"
The vehemence with which many patients insist that their illness is medical rather than psychiatric has become one of the hallmarks of the condition.Purchasers and Health Care providers with hard pressed budgets are understandably reluctant to spend money on patients who are not going to die and for whom there is controversy about the reality of their condition (and who) are in this sense undeserving of treatment.Those who cannot be fitted into a scheme of objective bodily illness yet refuse to be placed into and accept the stigma of mental illness
remain the undeserving sick of our society and our health service (ME. What do we know -- real physical illness or all in the mind? Lecture given in October 1999 by Michael Sharpe, hosted by the University of Strathclyde).
Psychiatry today is where astronomy was 400 years ago - they are repeatidly shown evidence of physical illness and yet, in order to protect the financial and control interests of others and themselves, they are willing to let people suffer and die.
I expect science will eventually reveal the true nature of the mind - and it will also provide explanation of all so called psychological problems that exist and that are misdiagnosed by shrinks. It is unforgivable that humans are subjected to psychiatric treatment through poorly understood drug involvement regimes - it scares me rigid that a psychiatrist presumes he/she can enter my home, accompanied by the police, and
without my consent, can subject me to months of incarceration and theoretical forced drug treatment all on their subjective opinion. It is barberic and frankly unforgivable.
Consent is the issue - psychiatry has no respect for human individuality - any 'body' that attempts to take away my consent to any aspect of my life is wrong and is a crime against humanity.